Assessment & Evaluation

Steps to Assess Organizational Culture
John Penrose and Dr. Bill Nolen

1. Gather and Review Materials. Assemble information that can inform the process:

• Corporate mission, vision and values statements.

• Company histories, annual reports and other relevant documents.

• Employee newsletters, blogs and other communications.

• New-hire orientation materials.

• Books, articles and other external sources such as blogs and Web sites.

But don’t just read these materials. Your company is a laboratory. Observe it. Don’t formalize the assessment process without a CEO champion.

2. Talk to People. Create structured interview/ focus group protocols to capture feedback from senior executives, long-standing managers and employees and recognized “culture champions” and “keen observers.” Look for behaviors that constitute “living the culture,” as well as company lore, unspoken rules and taboos.

3. Integrate Findings into a Model. Synthesize findings and arrange them into groupings. Here’s a two-tiered model that helped one company organize the specific items/questions in its cultural assessment:
Dimensions Factors

Beliefs Honesty, integrity, trust, support

People Passion, recognition, community, development, individual impact

Practices Accountability, leadership, hierarchy, results, customer focus

Systems Communications, coordination, knowledge, innovation

• Use a tiered model to help communicate the culture and the results.

• Beware of force-fitting your culture to someone else’s model.

4. Craft a Culture Assessment Tool. Elaborate the findings into observable statements about the culture. Here are a few statements that worked for one company:

• When I go to my direct supervisor with a problem, her/his first reaction is, “How can I help?” (Beliefs/Support).

• Our community service makes us a stronger company. (People/Community).

• What matters at my company is what you do, not whom you know. (Practices/Hierarchy).

• I can discuss the same topics in meetings that are discussed in the hallways. (Systems/Communications).

Use a standard one-to-five scale (“strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”) and invite open-ended comments.

5. Test with Key Groups.
You can validate findings in many ways:

• Check back with key groups.

• Sit down with the CEO and/or executive champions.

• Run a pilot with one or two “exemplar” groups.

• Refine based on feedback.

Don’t be surprised if the exemplars are less than exemplary.

6. Implement Culture Survey. Conduct a census (all employees) to establish the baseline measurement:

• Collect data and communicate results in ways that respect your culture.

• Capture organizational and other demographics to help pinpoint misalignment.

• Investigate gaps via open-ended comments for greater understanding.

Look for an early, easy win to realign and reinforce the culture. Look for culture champions to help carry the load.

John Penrose is the vice president of client services at Leading Indicator Systems. Dr. Bill Nolen is the founder and vice president of research at Leading Indicator Systems.

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